Angry Birds branch out into cartoons

PanARMENIAN.Net - Rovio, the company that makes the hit Angry Birds game, says it wants to branch out into cartoons using Disney as its model, Telegraph reported.

An initial run of 52 episodes of cartoons starring the Angry Birds characters will begin in the autumn. Each cartoon will be between two-and-a-half and three minutes.

"We're going to roll it out on all possible devices," Nick Dorra, Rovio's head of animation, said at the MIPTV conference in Cannes. He added: "We want to be on all screens."

Angry Birds, a game that involves catapulting destructive birds at pigs hidden in a series of fortresses, has been downloaded more than 700 million times. The game, now also available as a web app, is played by more than 30 million people a day for a total of 300 million minutes.

Dorra said that the animated series would explore the "deeper thoughts, deeper feelings of the characters, such as why are they always angry?".

Dorra told the audience that an Angry Birds film was in development as well but wouldn't be released until 2013 or 2014. He said: "Disney is a great model for us. We want to be seen as an entertainment company not a games company."

The latest Angry Birds game, Angry Birds Space, was released last month and was downloaded 20 million times in its first week.

Rovio recently announced plans to bring the Angry Birds characters into the real world too, with a range of childrens' activity parks. The first park, featuring animal spring riders, swings, sandpits and climbing towers, will open in Finland at the end of this month. Similar parks will open in Britain later this year.

Angry Birds has been downloaded more than 700 million times and its biggest market is the U.S., closely followed by China.